Entropy
by DesolateHearts
Summary: He was so annoying. So focused on his perfect strategies. It was almost as if he didn't even know that the universe would always tend towards Entropy. ShikaSau
1. Mission

Ch 1 - Mission

* * *

><p>Shikamaru walked slowly to the Hokage's office. He hadn't been assigned a serious mission in months, and he assumed that this would be another training job. He sighed. <em>How troublesome,<em> he thought to himself.

Life in Konoha sucked right now. Or at least it did for all those closely associated with Naruto. It was Shikamaru's idea to limit Naruto's friends to missions in the village. It would prevent any one being taken hostage to lure Naruto into the hands of Akatsuki. But Shikamaru hadn't realized that he would be confined to the village as well. He sighed again. Thinking about it was a little depressing, since he had no one to blame but himself.

He felt bad for the others as well, but mostly he worried about Sakura. They had never gotten along very well, but now she would openly glare at him when he passed by. She hated being in the village so much, and he swore that she was quietly seeking revenge.

He arrived at the Hokage's office, and knocked on the door.

"Come in," he heard the Godaime say, and he entered the office with no rush.

"You called for me?" the annoyance dripped from his words. She gave him a look that said _Don't push it,_ and sipped her coffee before answering.

"You have a mission," Tsunade informed. He waited for details, but realized she would not be giving them out anytime soon.

"Do you need me to come back later?"

"I'm waiting for your partner to arrive," she said.

That surprised Shikamaru. He had arrived late. If his partner was even later, this mission would undoubtedly fail. He sighed, took a seat, and waited.

A few moments later, the doors opened and none other than Sakura walked in. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her. She hadn't even knocked. When the kunoichi saw him she frowned.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?" she said, ignoring Shikamaru.

"You're late," the Hokage chastised.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Difficult patient at the hospital," she explained. Tsunade nodded. "So..?" Sakura pressed.

Tsunade sighed. "I'm sending the two of you on a mission to Marsh country. They were recently attacked by a rebellion from their own village. They need you," she pointed to Shikamaru, "to strategize a fighting plan with their civilian army, and you," she turned her gaze to Sakura, "To help with their hospital."

Sakura looked outraged. "Marsh country? Those rich snobs? And of all the people to send me with," she argued.

Tsunade shrugged. "We are in no financial position to turn away a mission. And I needed a strategist, and a medic, and you two are the only ones available."

"That's because we're confined to the village," Shikamaru reminded her.

"Yes," she agreed, "But I'm making an exception." Her voice had a tone of finality to it, and neither would have argued anyway. "Pack for a long trip, you're there until the problem is neutralized."

The two nodded and left her office.

* * *

><p>Sakura was extremely aggravated. She was not on good terms with Shikamaru. It was his fault that she had been confined to the village, left to simple boring missions that a genin would normally be assigned.<p>

She set aside the anger and packed quickly, eager to leave before Tsunade changed her mind. She packed as much as she could, and left for the gates. She waited there for her lazy partner to show up. She waited nearly half an hour.

Shikamaru finally met with Sakura at the gates. He nodded in greeting, but she turned towards the gates without so much as a 'hello.'

"Let's get this over with," she said.

"Yeah," he agreed.

Not a word was exchanged on their journey.


	2. Distrustful

Ch 2 - Distrustful

* * *

><p>There was a civilian waiting for them at the entrance of the village. He introduced himself, saying that he was sent to lead them to the Daimyo. They followed him, ignoring the stares at their strange clothing, and Sakura's unusual hair.<p>

When they reached the Daimyo's office, the boy left them. Shikamaru knocked on the door, and they entered when called.

The Daimyo smiled at them brightly. "Ah, yes, my Konoha friends!" she greeted. Sakura rolled her eyes, and Shikamaru sighed. "Well, associates, I guess." She briefed them on the problem. The former leader of their civilian army had been fired a few months ago. Outraged, he left the village. A week ago he came back with a group of men and attacked. There were no casualties, but more injuries than the small army could afford. "So who's the medic?" she asked.

"That would be me," Sakura said, "Haruno Sakura, at your service."

The Daimyo smiled, "I thought so," she bragged, "If you'll go with Masaru-san here, he will be supervising you throughout your stay."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Supervising? I don't understand."

"Well, obviously I'm not just going to let two shinobi run around in my village. I have people to protect."

Sakura gaped at the woman. "_Excuse _me?"

The Daimyo shrugged. "I don't know you," she rationalized, "I don't know if I can trust you."

Sakura glared at her, but left without another word. Shikamaru was angry as well.

"It's pretty rotten to request help from a shinobi village, and then disrespect the ninja who come to help," he informed.

The Daimyo frowned at him. "I have people to protect," she repeated. "Now I'm assuming you're the strategist?" he nodded, "Well then, Isamu-san will accompany you to the troops training ground."

Shikamaru left the office as angry as Sakura.

* * *

><p>Sakura did not to let her anger get in the way of helping the patients. She asked the head nurse to brief her on the extent of the injuries. Most of the victims of the attack were stable, but two were in critical condition.<p>

The medic took care of those two first. The more serious case was an older man who had been poisoned severely. Sakura, not having an antidote, had to break down all of the poison herself. She took a sample of the poison first to make an antidote. It was a long and taxing operation, but when she was finally done, the man was obviously much better. She had saved his life.

She moved on to the next patient, and found to her relief that it was only blood loss causing the lack of stability. It was a simple case of speeding up the process of red blood cell production in the marrow. Much easier than the first, although now she could feel the fatigue of chakra loss.

When they were stable, she checked on every single victim of the attack, checking thoroughly for poisoned scratches, or anything else that might cause them serious harm. She was able to let quite a few people go home, but two patients were poisoned and had to be taken care of.

By the end of the day, Sakura felt extremely tired, and though she wanted to stay to create the antidote and vaccine for the poison, she knew that she simply couldn't stay alert enough to do it properly. She left for her quarters, following Masaru.

* * *

><p>Shikamaru, though he was not using chakra, felt as exhausted as Sakura by the end of his duties. Just as the Daimyo had not trusted him, the leader of the civilian army did not respect him. It took hours of hard core strategizing for Shikamaru to finally get on the mans good side. And even then, the man still believed himself superior to the shinobi. It would have made Shikamaru laugh, had it not been so troublesome.<p>

After gaining the respect of the leader, he worked on the troops. It was much easier when he wasn't at odds with their commanding officer, but still incredibly difficult. By the end of the day, all he had accomplished was respect.

He hadn't trained anyone, or shared strategies with anyone. He felt like he had wasted an entire afternoon. And frankly, that sucked. Isamu led him to the place where he would be staying.

* * *

><p>Sakura laughed. "No," she said, "Just no. It's not happening."<p>

"I'm sorry, Sakura-san," Masaru apologized, "There are two beds."

Sakura shook her head. Shikamaru sighed.

"Look, we just want to be able to make sure that neither of you will do anything against the village."

Sakura laughed again. "How many times do we have to tell you?" she asked him, incredulously, "If we weren't here specifically to help, we wouldn't be here at all."

Masaru shrugged. "Daimyo's orders."

Shikamaru grabbed Sakura's arm before she punched him in the face. "Just let it go, it's not like you've never shared a room with a teammate before."

The kunoichi glared at him. She yanked her arm away, and walked into the room without another word.

Masaru let out a breath in relief, "Thank you-"

But Shikamaru was already in the room with the door closed before he finished his gratitude.


	3. Shogi

Ch 3 - Shogi

Sakura paced the room angrily. She really wanted to cause some damage, but she didn't want to get caught destroying boulders. She let out an aggravated sigh, and turned to her partner. He was calmly setting up a game of shogi on his bed.

"I don't understand how you're not as pissed as I am," she said.

He looked up from what he was doing. "I am," he argued, "I'm just more composed about it."

That surprised her. She sat on the bed closest to the bathroom and watched him. He finished setting up the board and began playing... against himself.

"How can you do that?" she asked.

He looked up. "What?"

She pointed at the board. "Play shogi by yourself. I mean, you know what you're going to do, so you can't beat yourself, and neither can you lose."

He shrugged. "I get bored, and no one will play with me because they know I'll win."

Sakura laughed. "A little cocky, are we?"

He smirked at her. "A little," he shrugged again, "But it's the truth. I haven't been beaten in years."

Sakura thought about that for a moment. Suddenly she sat up and walked over to his bed, sitting down across from the board. "Challenge accepted. Teach me how to play," she ordered.

He raised an eyebrow. "So much for hating my guts, huh?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I never hated you. You got me stuck in the village, I was mad," she shrugged, "Ask Naruto, I can be pretty unreasonable at times. But, we're gonna be stuck here for a while. It's no use being mad about something that apparently isn't an issue anymore."

He nodded. "Okay then, how much do you know about shogi?"

"Not a thing."

He sighed. "How troublesome."

Sakura glared at him. "Well what did you expect?"

"Most people at least know the set up."

Sakura shrugged. "I'm not most people."

He sighed again. "Whatever. Each player has twenty pieces. One king, one rook, one bishop, two gold generals, two silver generals, two knights, two lances and nine pawns," he pointed to each one as he named it. "They have no color differentiation, so how we tell apart your and mine is by their orientation. If It's pointing at me, it's yours, and vice versa.

"They're set up like this; in the first rank the king is placed in the center. On either side of the king there is a gold general. Adjacent to the golds are the silvers, then the knights then the lances. In the second rank, the bishop and rook are placed in front of your knights, bishop on the left, rook on the right. Finally in the third rank you have your pawns.

"In traditional shogi, there's an order for you to place your pieces on the board, but it's just troublesome to remember. As long as their placed correctly, it shouldn't affect the game anyway. You understand so far?"

Sakura nodded.

"Well then, that's enough for today," he got up and went over to his pack.

"What?" Sakura objected, "Come on, that's practically nothing."

He shrugged. "Patience is a virtue," he informed.

She pouted. "A virtue that I lack."

He chuckled. "And you want to learn shogi?" He pulled a carton of cigarettes out of his bag, and took one out. Sakura frowned.

"I didn't know you smoked," she said, more to herself than to Shikamaru.

He nodded. "Ever since Asuma died."

She furrowed her brow, "That's a pretty poor way to honor the man."

"I know," he opened a window and lit the cigarette, "But I'm already addicted."

"You can always just quit," she argued.

"It's not that easy," he retorted, "Otherwise I would have done it by now."

"I can help," Sakura offered.

"I don't want help," he admitted.

"Oh," Sakura hadn't expected that. She sighed and walked to the bathroom. She changed into more comfortable clothes, and then came out. Shikamaru was already in his bed. Sakura climbed into her own and shut her eyes, but to no avail.

Neither of them got much sleep that night.


End file.
